Jewish Cemetery, Kalisz

The new Jewish cemetery in Kalisz - the Jewish cemetery in Kalisz, on Widok Street, located at 23 Podmiejska Street, was established in 1919; together with the preburial house, it was entered in the register of monuments in 2002.

In the middle of 1920, the Board of the Jewish Community applied to the building authorities of Kalisz for permission to use the purchased land, located between Widok and Wąska Streets. The town gave its permission on 20 September 1920, and in April of the following year the fencing of the new cemetery began. In the same year the construction of stables and a carriage house began. Two years later, construction of a farm house began. In 1926 the community of Kalisz commenced the construction of a pre-burial house, which was to be built at great financial cost. The increasingly difficult situation of the community resulted in the fact that the building was not completed until the outbreak of World War II - the planned floor was not built, and the roof was not topped with a dome. Until 1939 over 3000 people were buried here.

During World War II Germans devastated the cemetery. On the cemetery 326 Poles were executed during the war. There are about 100 matzevot left on 1.1 ha.

In the 1950s, several symbolic graves are built. The families of the survivors wish to commemorate their loved ones murdered by the Nazis in this way. On March 10, 1962 colonel Henryk Zielniński, commander of the Peasants' Battalions, was buried in the cemetery. In 1966 about 60 tombstones were renovated and cleaned up and 20 were concreted. In 1945-62 10 people were buried on the cemetery. In 1964 there is a memorial statue commemorating murdered Jews from Kalisz. The remains of the local Jewish community, exhumed in 1967 from the cemetery in Blaszkow, were also transported to the cemetery. Over the grave a monument was erected, and next to it matzevot from Błaszki were placed.

In 1998 the responsibilities of the former Jewish community in Kalisz were taken over by the Jewish Religious Community in Wroclaw. By a decision of the Kalisz Voivode of September 28th, 1998, the plot of land number 13/37 with an area of 1.0919 ha became the property of the Wroclaw Jewish Community.